The Valley of Fear eBook

There is little more to tell. Scanlan had been
given a sealed note to be left at the address of Miss
Ettie Shafter, a mission which he had accepted with
a wink and a knowing smile. In the early hours
of the morning a beautiful woman and a much muffled
man boarded a special train which had been sent by
the railroad company, and made a swift, unbroken journey
out of the land of danger. It was the last time
that ever either Ettie or her lover set foot in the
Valley of Fear. Ten days later they were married
in Chicago, with old Jacob Shafter as witness of the
wedding.

The trial of the Scowrers was held far from the place
where their adherents might have terrified the guardians
of the law. In vain they struggled. In
vain the money of the lodge—­money squeezed
by blackmail out of the whole countryside—­was
spent like water in the attempt to save them.
That cold, clear, unimpassioned statement from one
who knew every detail of their lives, their organization,
and their crimes was unshaken by all the wiles of
their defenders. At last after so many years
they were broken and scattered. The cloud was
lifted forever from the valley.

McGinty met his fate upon the scaffold, cringing and
whining when the last hour came. Eight of his
chief followers shared his fate. Fifty-odd had
various degrees of imprisonment. The work of
Birdy Edwards was complete.

And yet, as he had guessed, the game was not over
yet. There was another hand to be played, and
yet another and another. Ted Baldwin, for one,
had escaped the scaffold; so had the Willabys; so
had several others of the fiercest spirits of the gang.
For ten years they were out of the world, and then
came a day when they were free once more—­a
day which Edwards, who knew his men, was very sure
would be an end of his life of peace. They had
sworn an oath on all that they thought holy to have
his blood as a vengeance for their comrades.
And well they strove to keep their vow!

From Chicago he was chased, after two attempts so
near success that it was sure that the third would
get him. From Chicago he went under a changed
name to California, and it was there that the light
went for a time out of his life when Ettie Edwards
died. Once again he was nearly killed, and once
again under the name of Douglas he worked in a lonely
canon, where with an English partner named Barker
he amassed a fortune. At last there came a warning
to him that the bloodhounds were on his track once
more, and he cleared—­only just in time—­for
England. And thence came the John Douglas who
for a second time married a worthy mate, and lived
for five years as a Sussex county gentleman, a life
which ended with the strange happenings of which we
have heard.

Epilogue

The police trial had passed, in which the case of
John Douglas was referred to a higher court.
So had the Quarter Sessions, at which he was acquitted
as having acted in self-defense.